Final Triumph
by ShaD.23
Summary: The Heartless and Nobodies have been vanquished, but danger still lies ahaed for the three Keybeares. Hannibal and his Dark Matter will stop at nothing, but one foe still hides in the shadows. Rated for language & violence. Character 2 may change


I LOVE Birth by Sleep and all the rest of the Kingdom Hearts series. This bit has been in the works since I was 17, and I think it's finally time to engage. This story will mostly follow BbS, but it will disregaurd the final secret ending(no spoilers to that one), because, well, my KH fics have sort of, I'm sorry, HAVE completely become an AU. Still, let's not go into polotics. I give you, at long last, Kingdom Hearts, Final Triumph._

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The fate of all occurs not by chance...

_The fate of all is inevitable..._

_All fates... pass through... and gather together..._

_So it has been since the dawn of time. Bound by fate, like a raft on a steady current. But what if it didn't have to be as it sounded. What if one could shape, direct and alter their fate?__This is not what I wanted... This is not what anybody wanted... But it came to us... And now we must embrace what we have and rise to meet whatever comes for us next..._

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Kairi awoke to an early dusk, waning warmth from their campfire swirling around her. Riku was still awake and sat on a log, Sora asleep opposite the two of them. She was still dead tired, but an odd dream she had made her wake with a start. Fortunately, it seemed as though Riku hadn't noticed, so she began pondering the strange dream to herself.

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Kairi sat alone on the shore, putting a luck charm together happily. Soon after, as the sun began setting, she hurried off with Riku and Sora to watch the sun set on the island where the Paupu fruit grew. It was a moment she enjoyed sharing with her two friends, especially since they were about to set sail on their raft in just two days. Unlike most other times, however, not a word was spoken between them. Kairi, slightly unnerved by the silence, stood and began across the bridge connecting the small island and the larger one, where she and the youth of Destiny Island would spend their days. Soon after, however, the world behind her faded, like countless grains of sand floating off in a breeze. Unaware of everything slipping away, however, she just continued along the bridge, until she felt faint and fell back into the growing oblivion behind her. Tumbling and soaring through the black void, she finally came to a stop and opened her eyes to see a massive, dark hall full of hissing pipes and a colossal heart-shaped emblem of some kind with a creepy void swirling in it. Soon after, however, she saw Sora falling lifelessly to the ground. Tears streaming down her face, she charged to his side, only for him to disappear. Fearing for what could have happened to Sora, a squat stranger in odd blue clothes took her arm and tried to hurry her off, joined by a tall stranger in green, carrying a large shield. Before they could hurry her off any further, she grabbed a massive, silver and gold key she saw Sora holding before he faded. Hurrying off through the corridors, she wildly swung the blade around her at the tiny black creatures following the three, soon finding the three of them surrounded by the monsters in a much smaller hall. Spotting one and feel an indescribable familiarity with it, she threw her arms around it, only for it to become Sora. She saw him fight them off as the dark hall they stood in slowly turned to Destiny Island. Soon, he began to glow and fade away, nodding and smiling as he did, holding her luck charm up. Smiling, she tearfully stepped away and felt strange. Still, she continued down the beach(unaware that she had grown a year older in an instant), spotting a grinning man with long red hair dressed in a black coat. Fearing him, she hurried off through a portal that simply appeared out of thin air behind her, only to find a sinister looking figure in an identical coat with long blue hair and a cross-shaped scar upon his face. Seizing her arm, the swirling void they stood in melted away to reveal a shimmering sliver balcony, Riku and Sora (both appearing a year older as well) leaping out to her aid soon after. As Sora nodded to her and held her charm up, Riku nodded and handed her a Keyblade and smirked. The three turned and hurried up the spiraling steps of the castle, strange images flooding Kairi's mind. A girl who looked just like her with golden hair, dressed in a simple, white dress, a young woman with pale, blue hair smiling down at her and a weathered, sinister looking man with a wicked smile. As these images flooded her mind, the world around her once again faded, Sora and Riku with it, just as before, and she found herself alone. Falling to her knees in the black abyss, she felt a loneliness unlike any other shroud her.

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"You look terrible." Kairi shook as Riku shattered the silence. Giving herself a mental slap, she crawled from her sleeping bag and took a seat beside Riku. Just the day before, they received a message from King Mickey, telling them to hurry out into the wilderness of Destiny Island. They began the trip at midday, and were already exhausted from their trek, so they made camp early. As Sora still slept soundly, they both simply watched the fire together. Kairi opened her mouth to speak a few times, but could not find her voice. She knew Riku must be feeling the same emotion. She remembered what Riku did the day before... what she and Sora did for him. It still made her mind reel. However, she quickly felt a horrid chill surround the camp site, tearing her mind from the matter. She and Riku shot up, looking around feverishly, knowing whatever was coming, it was not the King. Sora quickly snapped awake and climbed to his feet, 'drawing' his Keyblade. While Riku and Kairi did the same, they knew whatever was coming was drawing near. Just as their fire blew out, a figure in a massive, billowing black cloak appeared in a burst of black mist. The three looked on at him, knowing he was one to be feared. They could all feel it in their bones.

"Hello." he said politely. "My name in Hannibal, and it is an honor to meet with you three esteemed Keybearers." Smirking under his great, dark hood, he slowly turned to Kairi. "Young girl, kind and spirited..." Glaring at the man, she watched him turn to Riku, who also glared. "You boy, who wield he darkness without fear..." As Riku stared on, Sora gripped his Kingdom Key as looked into the black under the hood, searching for the figure's eyes. "And you, the one who connects all..."

"What do you want?" It was not Sora or Riku, but Kairi, who called out these words. A furious glare in her eyes, she gripped her Keyblade with a shaking hand.

"My agenda..." he glowered with zest "will be clear soon enough." A blue glow fell over the four, the ground shaking just a mite. Soon after, however, great portals ripped open, terrifying creatures dressed in black and silver crawled... or at least, that's what it first appeared to be. Their pitch black bodies were flanked by sharp, glinting silver at each appendage. They looked like Shadows with metal claws on their hands and feet, and metal armor on their joints and covering their faces. The three knew exactly what theses were. They were Heartless and Nobodies unified into one.

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Well, what can be said? I hope you all are looking forward to this, because I've been working this one around for the last three years (sort of like Nomaru working on BbS for the last five years). I hope you tune in for the next chapter.


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